


a wonder it happens at all

by summerstorm



Category: Scandal (TV)
Genre: Character Study, Comment Fic, F/M, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-24
Updated: 2012-07-24
Packaged: 2017-11-11 00:25:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 248
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/472397
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/summerstorm/pseuds/summerstorm
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's not that much easier, saying yes after the first time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	a wonder it happens at all

**Author's Note:**

> For the prompt 'almost getting caught,' which isn't exactly what happens here, but it's what the ficlet is about, so. \o/? Title from Maryann Corbett.

It's not that much easier, saying yes after the first time. It's still a choice, every time, and she may be more reluctant to say no now that she knows she can say yes without the world ending, but what they're doing is still reckless. Olivia knows it is, all affairs are, and she has to keep reminding herself of that—that no matter how many times they get away with it, or how openly he looks at her like he's seconds away from falling to his knees, they _could_ get caught, and it would be the end of the campaign. 

Technically, she can spend just long enough in her hotel room to shower and mess up the bed and get dressed and call up breakfast. Technically, she can go out to lunch with him, go out to _dinner_ , let his hand wander over her thigh under the table. Technically, he can ask to talk to her alone as often as he wants, and she can make some meaningless decision they can come out having reached to keep up the pretense, but someone's going to notice that there wasn't that much to discuss, not enough to warrant a thirty-minute disappearance, not enough to warrant faded lipstick and wrinkles in his shirt.

So instead of no, she says, "Not here," or "Not now," or "We need to be more careful," or "There's not enough time."

She never points out it's a bad idea. That much they're both aware of.


End file.
